Improving the thermal stability of azoreductase from Halomonas elongata by introducing a disulfide bond via site‐directed mutagenesis

Azoreductases mainly reduce azo dyes, the largest class of colorants, to colorless aromatic amines. AzoH, a new azoreductase from the halophilic bacterium, Halomonas elongata, has been recently cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The aim of this study was to improve thermal stability of this enzyme by introducing new disulfide bonds. Since X‐ray crystallography was not available, homology modeling and molecular dynamics was used to construct the enzyme three‐dimensional structure. Potential disulfide bonds for increasing thermal stability were found using DIScover online software. Appropriate mutations (L49C/D108C) to form a disulfide bond were introduced by the Quik‐Change method. Mutant protein expressed in E. coli showed increased thermal stability at 50 °C (increased half‐life from 12.6 Min in AzoH to 26.66 Min in a mutated enzyme). The mutated enzyme could also tolerate 5% (w/v) NaCl and retained 30% of original activity after 24 H incubation, whereas the wild‐type enzyme was completely inactivated. According to circular dichroism studies, the secondary structure was not altered by this mutation; however, a blue shift in intrinsic florescent graph revealed changes in the tertiary structure. This is the first study to improve thermal stability and salt tolerance of a halophilic azoreductase.